Apple today launched a new version of Safari, designed for web developers. Safari Technology Preview will provide access to new technologies Apple is planning to implement in iOS and OS X.
Apple’s goal with Safari Technology Preview is to offer an early look at new developer tools, layout technologies, and visual effects. Even though the company for a long time offered Nightly builds of WebKit, the open-source browser engine that powers Apple’s Safari. However, the new version of Safari provides a more convenient way to access the latest technologies as well as stay on top of the latest features by receiving automated updates.
The new Nightly build of Safari can be run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser. It can be also set as the default browser. The app includes local data stores for history, bookmarks, cookies, and cache, as well as syncing of browser history and bookmarks over iCloud.
The current build includes several JavaScript improvements, HTML enhancements, and Web Inspector changes:
JavaScript Improvements
– ECMAScript 6 support including lexical scoping, iterators, generators, arrow functions, default parameter values and many new built-in APIs.
– Better standards compliant IndexedDB support with more stability.
– Included the B3 JavaScript JIT compiler with low-latency, high-throughput that boosts performance.
– Added the ability to use document.execCommand(‘copy’) anddocument.execCommand(‘cut’) in response to a user gesture to copy and cut text programmatically.
HTML Enhancements
– The latest implementation of the Shadow DOM specification.
– Added support for Content Security Policy Level 2.
Web Inspector Changes
– Added memory summary and JavaScript allocations timelines.
– Added a fast JavaScript sampling profiler.
– Improved JavaScript profiling timeline view.
Behavior Changes
– Included many web compatibility fixes and bug fixes.
Safari Technology Preview can be downloaded from Apple’s Developer Website and will receive regular updates through the Mac App Store. It does not require a developer account.
